Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor, Classics

David H. J. Larmour (Ph.D. in Classical Philology, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Classics & Comparative Literature at Texas Tech and Honorary Professor of Classics, Ancient History & Archaeology at the University of Birmingham. He has particular interests in Ancient Greek sport & the Roman arena, Greek and Roman satire, lyric poetry, narrative theory, and comparative literature. Although grounded in classical philology, his research takes in the display and representation of the body in text and space; the ideological underpinnings of competition, exile, memory, and nostalgia; and the re-imagining of the classical past in the modern era. He also looks at how the physical borders of empires, and their accompanying mental categories, shape our understanding of the past, who we think we are, and whither we are headed. 

He has published articles on Euripides, Corinna, Plutarch, Lucian, Horace, Ovid, and Juvenal, as well as on Nabokov and Dostoyevsky. His first monograph, Stage and Stadium: Drama and Athletics in Ancient Greece, was published by Weidmann Press in 1999. He is also the co-author with A. Georgiadou of Lucian's Science Fiction Novel, True Histories (Leiden: Brill, 1998), an interpretation and commentary of that work. He has edited volumes on Rethinking Sexuality: Foucault and Classical Antiquity (Princeton), Russian Literature and the Classics (Routledge), and Discourse and Ideology in Nabokov's Prose (Routledge). A volume of essays called The Sites of Rome: Time, Space, Memory, co-edited with Diana Spencer, was published by Oxford University Press in 2007. In 2023, Agony: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the Ancient Greeks, a book co-written with Joshua Kulseth of Clemson University, with original artwork by Jeremy Smith, was published by Candle Light Press. 

His second monograph, The Arena of Satire: Juvenal's Search for Rome (Oklahoma 2016), looks at the connections between satire and the Roman arena, styling the satirist as a literary version of the gladiator who wounds, slices and dismembers his victims, while himself ending up as just one more performer in the imperial spectacle of power and powerlessness. The book also treats the "modern Juvenalians" of the 20th century and Prof. Larmour is now engaged in writing a follow-up monograph on these writers (including Evelyn Waugh, Viktor Pelevin, Martin McDonagh, and Michel Houellebecq) and a survey of Juvenalian Satire in modern times. 

Prof. Larmour has been engaged in a continuing scholarly collaboration with Prof. Diana J. Spencer, Dean of Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences at the University of Birmingham in the UK, since they began co-editing The Sites of Rome: Time, Space, Memory in 2005. They are currently working on a joint study of Ovidian topography, focused on the Metamorphoses and the Fasti. Other collaborative ventures include a new translation of Lucian's True History, illustrated by Jeremy Smith, with the graphic-novel specialists at Candle Light Press. At present, Prof. Larmour is assembling a volume of essays on Michael Longley and the Classics, co-edited with Dr. Maureen Alden at Queen's Univ., Belfast. He is also the leader of a research group that brings Greek combat sports and Roman gladiatorial spectacles into contact with contemporary combat sports and spectacles (such as MMA), with Cory Johnson, an Assistant Librarian at TTU.

In 1997, Prof. Larmour co-founded, with Paul Allen Miller, the journal INTERTEXTS, which publishes articles of comparative and theoretical reflection and served as an Editor for 10 years. He also edited special issues on The Literature of Exploration, Landscapes of Desire, and Nabokov's Novels. He currently serves as one of its Associate Editors, in charge of Book Reviews. From 2007 until 2018, Prof. Larmour was the Editor of The American Journal of Philology, the oldest classical journal in North America, founded by Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve in 1880. He remains a member of the Editorial Board of AJP. Prof. Larmour re-established TTU's connections with The American Academy in Rome and The American School of Classical Studies in Athens and is in regular contact with both institutions. 

Prof. Larmour co-directs (with Christopher Witmore) The Centre for Archaeology and Ancient Studies (CAAS) at Texas Tech, which encourages innovative research by promoting the ancient past as a site of cultural production that bridges concerns across times, spaces, and disciplines. Through CAAS, collaborative research is facilitated with scholars across the globe, distinguished speakers are regularly brought to campus and symposia and public events on topics of current interest are organized. He also runs the Classics Research Forum which showcases the research projects of colleagues, undergraduate and graduate students in Classics and related areas of interest at TTU. 

Prof. Larmour teaches a variety of courses at the graduate level in Greek and Latin literature (Lyric, Tragedy, Satire, Pre-Socratics and Plato, Biographical Narrative) combining rigorous philology with contemporary critical methodologies and an understanding of the broader literary tradition up to the present day. He also teaches CLAS 2304 Poets, Warriors, Prophets, CLAS 3350 Comparative Mythology, and undergraduate seminars on such topics as Athens vs Sparta, Greek Warriors and Athletes, The Sorrows of the Roman Arena, Byways of Myth and Honors courses in Classics. Prof. Larmour has directed a number of BA and MA theses and continues to work on a range of research projects with undergraduate and graduate students, and is happy to hear from any students who may wish to develop their interests and skills in such activities via David.larmour@ttu.edu.